Sunday, November 11, 2007

The mighty heap

They were called "The Mighty Five." The detractors called them "The Mighty Heap", obviously citing them in the same manner as one would cite the always present heaps of horse manure on the streets of Moscow.
I refer to the group of composers who permanently etched into our consciousness the power of 19th century Russian music and forever forged Russia into co-existence with the German, English and French contributors to European music.
What is amazing is that only one of the Five was a trained musician from the outset.
The others dealt with music as an avocation at first - imagine! Moussorgsky was a clerk in the bureaucracy; Rimsky-Korsakov was a naval officer; Borodin was a chemist; Cui was an artillery officer; only Balakirev was a musician from the outset.
And yet what comes out of 19th century Russia by way of this group, especially from Moussorgsky establishes a new road for the musical world to be able to travel upon.

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1 Comments:

Blogger F.P.Barbieri said...

German, English and French??? French?? BLOODY ENGLISH? Excuse me, what's the matter in your view with Palestrina, Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, or Respighi? Or have they suddenly become English for some reason? And what is the language from which the whole vocabulary of music is drawn? French? I would add that if I were Spanish I would be equally pissed off with the suggestion that England has anything to compare with their heritage.

July 9, 2013 at 12:33 PM  

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